


Different

by Megchad22



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alpha Laura, Bad Argents, Bullying, Gen, Good Allison, Mythology - Freeform, Pack Mother Stiles Stilinski, Seriously the whole town, Shunning, The Hale Fire, The whole town knows, but just hints
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-19
Updated: 2016-05-19
Packaged: 2018-06-09 08:24:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 8,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6898354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Megchad22/pseuds/Megchad22
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Thing might have been different if Derek and Laura hadn't managed to transform in front of half of Beacon Hills. The town rallies around the survivor of the Hale fire. Look out every one else.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The beginning

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Overcoming Me](https://archiveofourown.org/works/3170564) by [RTSideStories](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RTSideStories/pseuds/RTSideStories). 



Perhaps thing would have been different if Derek Hale hadn’t been at the bowling alley and Laura Hale hadn’t been at the dance that night. If they had been alone when the fire occurred, it’s likely no one would have realized the truth before they had been out of town and away. 

As it was there were plenty of witnesses when the duo simultaneously, but abruptly, screamed in grief and pain. All eyes were drawn to them as the scream turned to a howl, their battles with control lost. By the time they had run, sprinted, to the fire at the Hale house, half the town was following them. More than enough to watch first Derek then Laura bounce off an invisible barrier. 

The towns folk rushed to try and put the fire out. In doing so no one could miss Derek’s wild attack of a barrier that didn’t affect the rest of them…or the way that Laura was slumped forward sobbing into clawed hands. No matter the strange transformation not a single person there could deny their grief or pain. 

That was the starting point. 

The sheriff approached them, after the fire was out. After Peter had been dragged, barely breathing from the wreckage. After one of the army of people around the house had found little Cora and returned her to her the others. By this time the fight had gone from Derek and the siblings were huddled together. All three of them terrified and grieving. The older two of the three of them transformed. 

In the light of day or if circumstance were a little different then perhaps the John Stilinski would have reacted worse. But despite the obvious fangs and distorted features of Laura and Derek there were three children who had just watched their family burn. All he could think as he approached them was how young they looked. 

Laura the oldest at sixteen, who had babysat Stiles and Scott when she was fourteen and looking for some extra cash. John knew she had plans of becoming a lawyer like her Aunt Janet. Everyone in a five-mile radius had heard from Stephen Hale the day she had won an out of state poetry competition. 

15-year-old Derek. The basketball star who always had time to help others. His cheer had dimmed when his girlfriend Paige had died in an animal attack a few months before but he had just been starting to heal again, according to Melissa McCall. She knew him because he had been a longtime volunteer in the children’s ward at the hospital. Who had spent half an hour screaming it was his fault before he finally collapsed. 

And little Cora at 10. Stiles age. A child who had been over to his house before and after Claudia had passed. The little girl who had wanted to be a writer. One of the only people he knew who liked reading as much as his own son. 

None of them looked up when John approaches them. It’s possible none of heard him. 

“I am so sorry for your loss.” He said. The words should have been cliché and by rote but there was no way to keep the horror from his voice. Everyone knew the Hales, everyone liked the Hales. 

Laura looked up at him, lost and clutching her siblings close. “We have to leave. It’s not safe.” She said both talking to him and not. Shock plain and simple. Cora was buried in her side. Derek was shaking, staring at the house. 

“I will keep you safe.” John heard himself promise. If asked later he wouldn’t be able to tell you how he coaxed them into his car or into his house. It was completely against protocol but somehow he couldn’t have done anything else. 

Despite the late hour Stiles was still up. Apparently word had already gotten around about the fire because he didn’t ask why the Hales were there. In the back of John’s mind, he was slightly amused by the sight of his ten-year-old ushering a classmate and two teens into their kitchen and making them hot chocolate. 

Sometimes he wondered where his son got his nurturing side from. Don’t get him wrong both he a Claudia loved each other and their son more than anything in the world. But neither of them were particularly good at anything resembling comfort. Certainly not the open affection he was currently plying on the Hales. John would intervene but it did seem to be helping. 

It took three days for Laura to wake from her fugue state enough to realize where they were. Derek still flinched whenever anyone who wasn’t Laura, Cora, or Stiles came near him. Cora herself spent those three days in the blanket nest Stiles had built around her. 

“We have to go” were the first words from her mouth in those three days. John watched as her eyes flash red, causing Cora to shoot up from her blanket nest and Derek’s face to snap toward her. “We have to go, it’s not safe.” The guilt, shame and fear that washed over Derek’s face was heartbreaking. 

“You don’t have to go anywhere. You’re safe here.” John interrupted. Laura whipped around to look at him, surprised as if she hadn’t realized that he was there. Which was ironic since she had spent the last three days huddled with her brother on his living room couch. “We can protect you from whoever did this.” 

“You can’t. We don’t even know who…” 

“Kate. It was Kate.” Derek interrupted. “I could smell her at the house.” The boy looked like he would hyperventilate any second now. Before John could move though Stiles was already through the kitchen door with a glass of water for Derek and glare for John. 

Now that glare he gotten from his mother. 

“Laura” he said again to catch her attention. “you are safe here. Completely. Half of Beacon Hills is here in shifts to guard the house. Stiles had to organize a schedule for the people who are cooking because we had so many volunteers and we have been checking everything that a comes in with an amulet to detect Wolfsbane from the witch who lives on Market St. A…” 

“Court” Stiles supplies from where he was cuddling Derek. It should have been funny looking. A ten-year-old wrapped around a boy five years older. It wasn’t. Cora had settled down into her blankets but was watching with wary eyes. 

“A Court, thank you, of Fae who apparently take up most of Summer St. have warded the house and your uncle’s hospital room against anyone who would mean you harm.” 

“You know?” she whispered, confused and still hurting. 

“Only since the fire” the three Hales winced at the word and Stiles glared at John again. 

“Alan Deaton came forward the day before yesterday to explain some things. The Fae a bit after him and the Witch about an hour after that. I expect more to come out of the woodwork soon. Or not. As soon as your up for it, I’m going to need to take your statements.” 

“How? Why?” He didn’t need to ask what she meant. 

“Don’t you remember? You and Derek transformed the night of the fire in front of a large portion of Beacon Hills.” 

Laura jerked in shock, her eyes flashed red again. “What?” Stiles looked at her, clearly trying to gauge if she needed cuddles as well. 

John grimaced. “By now I imagine all of Beacon Hills knows. It’s been decided that the information will stay in the town limits.” Derek had disentangled himself from Stiles and was staring at John in abject horror. “You don’t have to worry. No one will hurt you again.” 


	2. Six Years

It had been six years since the Hale fire. The town of Beacon Hills had rallied around the remaining four Hales. The revelation of their Werewolf status didn’t change that. In fact, it actually drew the entire town together.  Of their tiny town of 500 about a quarter could be considered connected to the supernatural. From Fae to Werewolves and everything in between.

Laura, Cora, and Derek all moved into the Sheriff’s home. Though they would never try to replace what they had lost the Stilinski’s became family, Pack in the truest sense.  Stiles was like another brother, one who mothered the lot of them shamelessly.

Derek told the Sherriff about Kate, the woman who had set the fire. With the help of Rafael McCall and his FBI contacts a massive manhunt began. She was still at large though, as was her father. He had finished up high school and was just starting his second year of college. He had decided to skip the rest of the school year after the fire to get his head on completely straight, not wanting to become a danger to anyone else. He had to repeat it but not a single person in his class teased him about it.

Laura spent the first two summers with an allied pack, learning how to be a good Alpha. It was during this time that the effects of an Alpha’s bite became common knowledge. The fact that it could cure all sorts of diseases had almost started a riot in town as many worried parents tried to convince the young Alpha to give their children the bite, not to mention the adults. After Laura had two panic attacks brought on by crowds Stiles had put his foot down.  The boy guarded his pack mates and Alpha fiercely.  

Finally, with the help of the Sheriff and the Mayor, Laura was finally able to get the people clamoring for a cure to understand the risks that went with the bite.  Particularly in children, who had an 80% death rate from the bite if under the age of ten. Most backed off, though not all.

Still she did bite a number of people. She never let herself have more than two untrained Beta’s at once and would only bite someone under the age of sixteen if their life was in danger. Erica Reyes had been one such exception after she had fallen during a seizure.  Stiles’ friend Scott would actually be absent from school for the first month as he would be taking the bite just after his sixteenth birthday with both his mother and father’s permission.

Laura had gone on to college and would be starting law school via correspondence. She still wanted to become a lawyer and use the laws to help people.

Cora had actually adjusted the best to life after the fire. This was in no small part due to Stiles, who had turned out to be quite the force of nature. She was still sure she wanted to be a writer on the days she didn’t want to be a chef. At sixteen she was thriving under the fact that she no longer had to keep her wolf a secret.

Peter Hale had been comatose for two years after the fire. As soon as people found out he would heal better with his pack there, volunteers had poured out of the woodwork. At first no one was sure it would work, just having random people there but Cora though up the idea of each of the volunteer wearing something with a pack members scent on it. At first it was just Cora, Derek, or Laura’s scent that caused him to show improvement but slowly other people became Pack. In the four years since he was still recovering but had found a peace with himself. This peace started and ended with the Sheriff of Beacon Hills and his son, the two who had taken in his kin while he was indisposed.

Stiles flourished. He was good at taking care of others and needed to be needed. Having a house full of people was actually a dream come true to him. More to the point being part of a Pack help settle him and greatly lessened his anxiety. Not his hyperactivity but even then his energy was more directed than it was before the fire.

The town was slowly becoming a safe haven for the supernatural. It was an open secret. No one talked about the wolves that patrolled the woods of the preserve. Or the Fae Court that caused the never ending party on Summer St. Or even the Wendigo family that ran the morgue; there was in fact a treaty in place. Supernaturals that moved into Beacon Hills were quickly warned that the humans that lived in town were off limits and that accommodations could be made for those that needed to feed off humans. If accommodations could not be made, then they were firmly ejected. If needed an entire species could be made unwelcome on the land itself, because of the elemental family that lived four doors down from the McCall’s.  

Humans that moved into town were treated slightly differently. They were given six months to settle in and then carefully let in on the secret of the town. If they took it well then they were welcomed with open arms. If they took it badly their memories were bound, with a potion created jointly by the town witch and the druid Alan Deaton, and they were carefully driven out. Thankfully it had only happened twice in six years.

Now it was the beginning of Cora and Stiles sophomore year. Now sixteen they were all but preparing for war. Because it was only after the newest family had moved to Beacon Hills that anyone realized that it was the Argents. And they had a sixteen-year-old daughter of their own.


	3. Silence

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok this chapter deal with shunning. While not particularly graphic it does deal with shunning as a bullying tactic and the psychological effects of being shunned. Shunning is not a valid solution and can have some severe consequences. This is a form of bullying and should be treated as such.

Allison Argent hated being the new girl. Even before the manhunt that made her family national news six years before. Since that time it had been even worse.

She sat silently outside the principal’s office of her new school, Beacon Hills High School. It was a tiny place that they had moved to this time, just over five hundred people. Every single one of them seemed to stare at the new people.

A woman stepped out of the office, “Principal McGuire will see you now.” She said. Her voice was stiff, standoffish.

Allison went in to the office and sat down in front of the desk. “Allison Argent” The principal stated. He frowned down her records. “Decent grades, could be better. A bit of a discipline problem, it looks like. Well we won’t have any tolerance for that here, understand?”  The woman’s eyes bore into her with a full on icy stare. Great another one of those people.

Judgmental or curious eyes followed her family wherever they went. Everyone wanted to know what her aunt could have done to deserve the manhunt. That or they judged Allison based on her Aunt Kate.  Especially in small towns like Beacon Hills.

“I understand, Ma’am.” She replied. There was no point in arguing. She rarely stayed long enough anywhere to move past the judgmental stage.

“See that you do.” The woman replied and handed her a paper with her schedule on it. With that she was dismissed for her first class.

What followed was probably the single most coordinated shunning Allison had ever been a part of. There is a part of her that thinks she should be impressed. Even the teachers were in on it. Each one would introduce her to their class then proceed to ignore her very existence. Not a single person approached her, save for a few shoves. She wasn’t spoken to by anyone for the first four days she was in school. Only once did she try to make first contact. The person, an intimidating blonde girl in leather, didn’t even pause to stare through her. She just kept on talking.

That first Friday she was finally approached in the cafeteria by a really creepy kid wearing a camera. By then Allison was more than a little rattled.  The silent treatment wasn’t confined to the school and no matter where she went she had not been able to get an answer from anyone but her parents since they moved here.

“So you’re the new girl.” The camera kid’s voice sent a shiver of unease down her spine. 

Her last nerve snapped. “I don’t know what my Aunt did to become the subject of a manhunt so if you are looking for gossip you can fuck off.” She snapped unthinkingly.

The entire cafeteria was silent. An ugly scowl crossed the boy’s face. “Well if you’re going to be that ungrateful I won’t do you a favor after all” He sneered and stormed off. Allison left as well, missing the thoughtful look of a few of the students. She went home to the only two people who would give her the time of day, trying desperately not to cry. 

After a weekend wallowing in loneliness Allison returned to school. She really didn’t have a choice since her parents insisted that they needed to be in Beacon Hills. She was studying in the library when a person took the seat directly across from her.

After waiting for them to say something, do something, or take out their books Allison finally looked up. Across from her sat a boy from a few of her classes. Skinny and pale he had whisky colored eyes and a buzz-cut. He was looking at her with one-part curiosity and one-part pity. It would have been irritating but Allison was already so drained.

“Your family shouldn’t have come here.” He said matter of factly. There wasn’t anything cruel in his words. In fact, they almost seemed kind.

“Not like I had any choice in the matter.” She snapped back shortly, trying to project ‘go away’ with her every movement. Unsurprisingly she was ignored.

“Do you want to know?” The boy asked, still serious. Allison didn’t know why she was still sitting here.  This was probably some kind of horrible prank that would end up with her covered in pig’s blood. But somehow she felt she could trust this boy.

“Know what?”

“Why the name Argent is universally hated in Beacon Hills. Why your family should have stayed as far away as they could. Do you?”

Allison sat back, stunned. She never expected anyone to own up to the fact they were being silently hated. “Yes” She answered. Because she had to understand. Had to know why she was being punished and if it was something she could change.

The boy’s face didn’t change from its serious expression. “Six years ago your Aunt Kate seduced a fifteen-year-old so she could trap his family in their own home and set it on fire. There were four survivors, the three Hale children and their Uncle who spent two years’ catatonic. The Hales were well loved here before the fire and even more so after.”

“Oh God” she whispered, her breath coming in short. She couldn’t breathe. She could feel the truth of his words. Because all the thing she never knew she noticed slipped into place. Her breaths became shallow. Hyperventilation, she though distantly. Through watering eyes, she could see the boy watching her. Not making things worse but also not lifting a finger to help her.

But why should he. Not after what her family caused. Her parents had to have known, had to know what coming here meant. The staccato pulse of her breaths began to slow and deepen as anger overtook her heartbreak and panic. They had to have known and still they sent her to this school. They had listened to her cry herself to sleep all weekend and still never thought to warn her.

“My father is the sheriff” the boy continued after she was able to pay attention again, “And the Hale siblings came to live with us after the fire. Don’t hurt them.” He warned before getting up and walking off.

She heard the warning with only half an ear, her mind focused inward. She had pleaded to be told what her former favorite aunt had done. All her parents had said was that she had done what she had for the right reasons and had gotten caught. But what reasons could justify burning a family alive. There were none she decided finally.

Stiles watched as the Argent girl calmed then stumbled away from the table. He wished he felt more than pity for her.  Wished he could help her, take he under his wing like he had his brother and sisters. He couldn’t, not now when she could still choose her family.

She had the potential to belong here. To belong to Beacon Hills, the way the rest of them did. He could feel it. But it had to be her choice. Because her family, the one she had grown up with. Well, they were not welcome here.

After the girl had left the library, Stiles stood. Cora joined him from where she had been hiding behind the bookshelves.

“You need to stop taking Derek’s advice about good hiding places. If she had been any less miserable she would have realized you were staring at her like a creeper.” He said in lieu of a greeting.

Cora snorted, “I knew she wouldn’t notice. And I’m telling Derek you said that.”

Stiles smiled fondly, “He know that he has no ability in stealth. I’ve told him, you’ve told. I’m pretty sure I saw old Mrs. Marketh at the deli talking to him about it once. Now don’t you have History in a few minutes?”

Now his sister rolled her eyes, “Yes, mom.” She groaned. But still she went anyway.

It was an interesting dynamic, his family. Despite the fact that he actually was the youngest person in the house he was the undisputed caretaker. He was the one that Laura went to when she was afraid of failing as an Alpha, who Derek had talked to when he was trying to decide what he wanted to be, and who could calm Cora down after a panic attack.

Still musing on his family Stiles got up as well. He had a free period but it occurred to him that there was one thing he could do for the Argent girl.  He approached the libraries desk.

Ms. McGrath, the young librarian, was the biggest gossip in town. She didn’t even hide the fact that she had been trying to listen in to on his conversation with the Argent girl.

“Why would they do that?” He asked her.  He couldn’t bring himself to reach out to the girl, not until he was sure where her loyalty would lay, but he could make life a bit easier for her.

“Hmm?”

“Her parents. How could they bring her here?” Stiles could hear the frustration in his own voice.

“They are hunters, dear.” The woman responded. The glamor she was wearing faded a bit around the eyes revealing her startling purple cat slit eyes. The Egyptian woman continued to track something Stiles could not see, even as she listened to him intently. 

“But that is their pup. And not only are they letting her walk into danger unprotected, they are keeping her ignorant that there even is a threat.” He burst out. That was the part that was truly bothering him. It would be one thing if she was informed but he just had to tell a sixteen-year-old girl why she was universally hated in the school her parents picked for her.

The glamored Sphinx looked at him with knowing eyes. “That’s not all, is it?”

Stiles sighed, “She could belong here. Her parents never will but I feel like she could. She just has to choose to.”

“Your spark?” the young woman asked with a small smile. It was the single most catlike expression he had ever seen on a human face. This was including the fact that Derek could be the embodiment of Grumpy Cat some mornings.

“Yes.” It had taken all of two days after everything had started to settle down for Alan Deaton and Maryanne Kalum, the town’s witch, to realize he had a spark of magic in him. It wasn’t anything huge, especially since he couldn’t do anything with it until puberty finally settled his body. It did come with a vague intuition and he had learned to follow it.

The sphinx hummed again, “You’re right. The poor dear really is having a rough time of things. I’ll see what we can do to ease things up for her, at least. Her parents though.”

Stiles shrugged, “Will never belong to Beacon Hills. We just have to make sure they know it without catching the girl in the crossfire.”


	4. The Turning Point

No one was more shocked then Allison when someone sat down next to her in her math class. In the week since the Sherriff’s son told her about her aunt very little had changed. She was still ignored, though surprisingly the tone of the sunning had changed slightly. That first week it felt like people were shoving shards of ice at her. The silence pressed in, brittle but stifling. She understood why, now that she knew. 

The last week, though, it was still silence. Still pressing against her skin. But some of the brittle anger had bled away. She wondered if it was her or them. If knowing had made her act in some way differently.

Looking over at her seat mate she saw a girl with short dark hair. She didn’t smile, not that Allison was expecting her to, but she wasn’t glaring either. Allison looked around to figure out why the seat that had been empty for two weeks suddenly wasn’t. it was only after taking in the other empty seats in the room that she realized that everyone had gone silent. The entire class, including the teacher, was staring at them. The air thickened with tension that Allison didn’t understand.

The girl turned toward her. With a clearly deliberate nonchalance she held out her hand. “Cora Hale” she introduced herself.

Allison felt her eyes bug out and the breath leave her lungs in a rush. On auto pilot she reached out and shook the hand of the youngest of her Aunts living victims. “Allison Argent” she croaked out.  She received a short nod in return before Cora turned back to the front of the room. As if a signal some of the tension in the room abruptly relaxed.  She almost felt like she had passed some secret test when the teacher actually called on her to answer a question.

She wasn’t any more included in the roughhousing and joking in the halls than before but again something had relaxed. She made her way to lunch and wondered to herself why she was trusting the people here. Anywhere else and she would have already suspected some Carrie level prank in the works. Especially with what the Sherriff’s son told her. But for some reason she trusted that at least they were not going to outright hurt her.

The next few days were strange.  People interacted with her, sort of. No one talked to her but occasionally she sees people smile at her in the halls. Even the adults and strangers seemed to have relaxed a hair.

Maybe that’s why she was standing here now. In front of the Sherriff’s Station clutching at the small bag in her hand like the lifeline it was. It said something about her relationship with her parents that it only took five days and the truth for her to be willing to do this.  She took a breath and walked in.

The receptionist looked at her suspiciously. It almost made her back out but who knows when she would have the opportunity or the courage again.  Her parents both being sick with some sort of bug was the only reason she might be able to get away with this.

The receptionist regarded her for a moment more than stiffly pointed to an office to her right. Allison steeled herself. There was no turning back from this.

The Sheriff looked up from his papers and frowned slightly at her, “Can I help you?” He asked.

There was no way he didn’t recognize her but to his credit he wasn’t anything other than professional. That more than anything let Allison know she was making the right decision. She took a deep breath and reached into the bag to pull out the small stack of papers held within.

“I know my parents are sending money to my grandfather and aunt. Maybe this can help you find them.” She laid the stack, her parents bank statements for the last six months, on the desk. Her hands shook lightly.

“Where did you get these?” He asked and gestured for her to have a seat. She did, glad since the shaking only got worse.

“I printed a copy from my parents computer. They do everything electronically and all the passwords are saved there. Will it help?” The words tumbled out of her.

The man’s frown didn’t lighten and he carefully didn’t touch the papers on his desk. “As an officer of the law I can’t ask you to provide evidence on your parents banking activities. It’s privileged.”

“But you’re not asking. I’m giving it to you. Please take it.” She could hear the waver of tears in her own voice. These last few weeks had stretched her beyond the breaking point.

“Why did you bring this to me?” There was a creeping suspicion in his tone and body language.

She drew a shuddering breath, trying to keep the sobs at bay. “Your son told me what she did, Aunt Kate. My-my Parents, they always made it seem like she hadn’t hurt anyone. They always said she was caught doing something but it was for the right reasons. And I believed them. But then he told me and there is not good reason for that kind of mass murder. Why would they say that? What could make them believe that there is a right reason to set a house on fire and kill a family?”  Tears dripped down her cheeks and she practically screamed the last question. In the deepest part of her mind a small part of her whispered that the Sherriff would be confused, that the boy had lied to her. She didn’t know if she was disappointed or relived when that turned out not to be the case.

“I can’t tell you that.” He answered shifting uncomfortably.

Her laugh, when it came was brittle and bitter, “Of course not. You seem like a reasonable, sane person.” There was a moment of silence, “I might not have…might not have done anything” she admitted finally, “It was horrible to think about and I wouldn’t have been able to look at my parents in the eye again, but I might have let it go because they are my parents. I had already almost convinced myself that it was a big misunderstanding.”

“What changed?” The Sherriff asked in what was clearly trying to be a comforting voice. It wasn’t but Allison appreciated the thought.

“I remembered that my parents would sometimes talk about how Aunt Kate had ‘done it again’.  They talked about worrying about witnesses and how she had gotten in trouble before. They aren’t just ignoring what she did because she is family. I realized they actively approved of Aunt Kate murdering people in a horrific way.”

The Sherriff closed his eyes for a moment then opened them. He took the bank statements. “Thank you” his voice was slightly rough. “Do you need somewhere to spend the night?”

Allison felt a tremor run through her at the words but forced herself through it. “Are you able to arrest my parent or get to my au… Kate and G-Gerard right now?” She asked in return.

Her shook his head sadly, “No, it will probably be a few weeks before we can put any information to use.”

“Then I have to go back to their house. If I don’t they’ll know something is wrong and you could lose them.”

The man’s face took on a pinched look, “Are you safe there?”

The young woman though about it, she really considered it. “Yes” She replied finally. Her parents had never hurt her. “I’ve been different enough because of the isolation that they shouldn’t notice anything.”

He nodded, “Alright.” Then a mischievous smile broke across his face lightening the mood, “Stiles will probably check in with you on Monday. He tends to go a little overboard so be prepared for questions about your eating habits, home life, and possibly your hobbies.”


	5. Filling the Gaps

John Stilinski returned home to find Laura helping Cora and Stiles with their chemistry homework. Or more to the point helping Cora and keeping Stiles on task, which amounted to the same thing. His youngest was extremely intelligent but left to his own devices could do things like write a paper on male circumcision for his econ class.

All three looked up when he entered though he knew that the wolves had probably heard him down the street.

“I met Allison Argent today” he announced to the room at large.

Cora and Stiles both perked up with interest and even Laura failed to hide her curiosity. “Oh?” she asked.

“Nice enough girl” he responded to her unasked question, “A bit high strung right now, understandably. She came in with her parent’s bank records for the last six months, said they were sending money to our missing fugitives and hoped these would help.”

Stiles looked both triumphant and worried, “Where is she?” he asked, peering around john as if the girl was hiding behind him.

“Back at her parents’ house I imagine.” John answered. Stiles frowned the concern painting itself clearly on his face. “She a smart girl. She pointed out that if she doesn’t go home to them before we can make an arrest than we could lose not only the Argents in town but also our real targets.”

“Is she safe there?” Laura asked, her alpha concern showing.

“She’s human and their daughter. She should be fine for now. Seems the parents have been sick for a few days. Cora, would you mind talking to Lilliana and get them to take that Karma curse off the Argent house?”

Cora pouted, “Oh but why? It’s not like it’s gonna kill them. Plus, it’s the only curse she knows that will not catch Allison in the crossfire.”

“Because” the Sherriff huffed with some amusement, “as amusing as it is eventually the hunters will add one and two together to come up with magic. At best they’ll skip town, at worse they’ll draw other hunters here. We’re so close now, I’m sending the bank records off to Agent McCall and we should have fresh leads in a few weeks. But enough about work; Laura I’m taking the fact that you’re here as a sign that Scott’s gotten control of himself.”

Laura nodded proudly, like she always did when talking about one of her new Beta’s. “Yep, he’ll be back to school Monday. He might eventually have some Alpha potential.”


	6. School

When Allison arrived at school that next Monday, she expected more of the same.  A soft silence and cautious smiles. She did not expect to be greeted with a barrage of cheerful questions by the Sherriff’s youngest son. Nor did she expect the feeling of being welcome for the first time since she had arrived here. A red headed girl had swept up to them in middle of the boy’s rant, complimented her jacket, kissed Stiles on the cheek and swept away again.  She wasn’t the only one.

She kind of felt like she had been hit with a whirlwind.

It wasn’t even like people were going out of their way to include her, just the feeling that she was welcome permeated the air. Stories were explained and the few times she actually asked anything she was answered. Accepted.

Cora Hale actually came up and hugged her just before math class, then settled in next to her like she had been sitting there all along.

Allison made a point of grabbing Stiles and dragging him into an empty classroom after that.

“What’s going on?” she asked, exasperated.

To his credit the other teen didn’t even try to ask what she was talking about. “You gave my father what could be the information he needed to find Kate Argent and her father. You’ve proven yourself.”

Allison sputtered. “So all of that, the shunning, the…the silence. That was a test.”

The boy was already shaking his head. “No, that was because you were an Argent. Now you’re Allison first. We had to be sure.”

“Why?” Allison asked, still bewildered.

“We’re very close knit here in Beacon Hills. Even more so since the fire. There is very little in the way of secrets. I could tell you could belong here since the day you snapped at Matt. You had choose to though because while there are few secrets among the residents we protect our own from outsiders fiercely.”

“So because I was a decent person I get the secret decoder ring.”

Stiles snorted. “Pretty much. Come over to my house for dinner tonight and my family will give you the unabridged guide to Beacon Hills.”

Somehow she found herself agreeing.

In her last class of the day, chemistry, there was someone new. “Mr. McCall” Mr. Harris barked out as a handsome boy with a crooked jawline all but slammed into the door just after the bell rang.

“Sorry Mr. Harris, I was bit overwhelmed at lunch.” Which was apparently enough of an explanation.

“Very Well, Mr. McCall, take a seat.” The boy turned and locked eyes with her and Allison felt her heart start to thud in her chest. Was this what love at first sight felt like?

It seemed the boy felt the same if the entranced look in his eyes was any indication. He took the open seat right next to her.

“Scott McCall” He said as he held out his hand to shake with a goofy grin.

She did the same. “Allison Argent.” She said then felt her stomach plummet, sure she had just ruined things with her last name. But Scott didn’t falter, his face didn’t drop into that mask of disgust her parents were still getting wherever they went. Instead his grin widened a bit.

“Stiles told me about you but I didn’t know you were going to be this pretty.” He said, clearly before his brain caught up with itself. His eyes widened and glazed with panic. Allison couldn’t help the giggle that escaped and more than she could stop breathing.

Maybe things were looking up.


	7. An interlude

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So it may be entirely possible that I wrote this entire story just for this scene.

Derek, like he always did when he first got back into town, stopped at the gas station just inside the Beacon Hills limit. Mr. Hayashi, a wood Kitsune who had been here almost as long as the Hales, was waiting cheerfully with his husband Max. Abe and Max were the type of couple Disney movies were made out of. Abe Hayashi, who had taken off his glamor just after the fire, was nearly 500 years old.  Max was human but apparently the latest in a long line of reincarnations of Abe’s first wife, who had also been human. They were still very much in love, even after 500 years. It always did Derek’s heart good to see them. And they always sent him off with some of his favorite snack foods.

After the long drive he filled up on gas, then went in to try and insist on paying. It very rarely ever worked but Derek kept trying. When he left the store, bags in hand, he saw someone looming by his car.

There was only one set of strangers in Beacon Hills at the moment. Hunters. Hoping to keep things from escalating Derek approached as if he had no idea who Chris Argent was.

Which he absolutely did. Even if Laura hadn’t kept him abreast of what was going on back home, Stiles certainly did. He had even discussed the hunters a few times with Uncle Peter. Chris Argent had no idea how lucky it was that Derek’s adoptive father was still in the midst of building a case against them.  It was by the Sheriff’s request that no one do anything to drive the adult Argents off in such a way that they would leave Allison Argent, or Allison Hale if Uncle Peter had any say in it, behind.

“Good evening” he called out politely.

“This is quite the car.” Chris Argent answered back. His tone was polite but strained.

Derek smiled, “Thank you. My uncle got it for me after I decided to go to college.”

“It must take quite a lot of upkeep to keep a car this nice.”

Derek shrugged and took a step closer to the car. “I’m good at taking care of what’s mine.”

“Hmm, well I imagine you have to have gotten better with age, with everything that’s happened.”

Derek felt a shaft of ice go through him. Up until now he had been hoping that at least some of the Argent family was ignorant of what Kate had done, and how she had done it. For Allison’s sake if nothing else. Never mind that Allison herself had maintained that her parents had known.

“Excuse me?” Derek kept his tone polite, it would not do to rip the hunter apart here, not when he was only part of the problem. The bait, not the quarry.

“I expect that fire caused to you to cling, maybe to places you shouldn’t. I mean it cannot be healthy that your family stayed after so many people died.” The man continued as if talking about the weather. Perhaps he would have said more but at that moment Max came storming out of the gas station, rifle in hand.

“You Ok there, Derek?” The tiny blonde man asked as if there wasn’t a raging forest spirit twenty feet behind him, trying to stay out of sight and in control of his temper.

“Just having a conversation with an old friend.” Argent said smoothly, or it would have been smoothly if he had tried it anywhere else than Beacon Hills.

Max’s frown got deeper and his shotgun lifted slightly. “I’ve known Derek since he was 10. He’s never mentioned you.”

Argent, proving that her was not completely a fool, backed away with his hands raised slightly. “My mistake then” and left quickly.

Max hummed, “So that’s Allison’s biological father.” He said with a frown. “No wonder Peter wants to adopt her.”

Derek laughed, “I think that’s more because she is as my younger brother would say, kick ass, and less of who she was born to.”

“I think he means that she could be that a kind as she is with _tha_ t for a father it must mean she is something extraordinary.” Abe interjected softly. “But enough small talk, you need to get home before the Sherriff sends out a search party.”

“You mean before Stiles does.” Derek corrected with a laugh.


	8. The End

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So this is the final chapter.

Allison asked to be there, they day they arrested her parents. She wanted them to know where she stood. No one could deny her that closure. Nor did they comment on how she spent the night before cuddling with her boyfriend, Scott. Just knowing that in a few hours she wouldn’t need to keep any more secrets was a relief. But there was a part her that was still unbearably sad because they were still her parents, she couldn’t help but love them.

So much had changed since she had moved to this little town. The weeks of silence blossomed into so much more than she could have ever dreamed of. Finding out about the world her parents had kept from her could have shattered her. But it hadn’t, instead she had gained friends, a boyfriend, and more family than she could shake a stick at.

Though the other Argents still complained about being ignored or dismissed, feeling hunted or haunted in town, she never had to worry about it. She got smiles from the grocer, concerned questions from the librarian, and advice from anyone who she cared to listen to. When she was out with her parents the towns people would scowl at the adult Argents but wink at her behind their back.

Stranger still was the family she had found.

Peter Hale, who had more right than most to want nothing to do with her, talked about adopting her. Giving her the Hale name. He even teased her about it being just until she took the name McCall.

Derek who was every bit the older brother she had always wished she had for all that he sometimes reminded her of Scott. She had met him that Thanksgiving, when she had managed to sneak away for a few hours.  He had a ready smile and a sarcastic wit that had her in stitches. And it was so very clear the way he adored his family.

Stiles had apparently been true to form. He had badgered her about her opinion on every topic under the sun then he made sure she was eating right. She had nearly cried when the boy had presented her with her own hand made protection amulet. She could see why everyone tended to go to him when they had bad days.

Cora had quickly become her best friend. She was this out there, crazy creative person that helped balance out Allison’s quieter tendencies. She was slowly learning to trust the people here, mostly due to Cora.

Laura was more reserved. Not untrusting exactly but wary. As she had to be because she was the Alpha and it was her job to keep an eye for potential enemies.  The two had a long discussion about whether Allison should take the Bite. Eventually they decided that while it was an option to keep open neither of them were ready for what it would mean for Allison to become a shifter.

Though she didn’t see him often even the Sherriff felt like family. Even after a few short weeks.  It only solidified when she was presented with a set of keys that went to Peter’s apartment, The Stilinski-Hale house, and the McCall house. Though her cheeks burned red when both of Scott’s parents told her jokingly that this did not mean that they were ok with under aged sex.

And then there was Scott. Her puppy of boyfriend. The man she was already more than halfway in love with.  He was one of the best things that had happened to her in the months since they had moved to Beacon Hills.  He had helped her as she began to distance herself from her parents, as she started to let them go.

Now it was time. She was walking along the Main drag with them. She pulled back a pace even as she heard her mother comment to her father that it was busier than usual.  She caught sight of the police coming from the building two doors down and smirked to herself, let the show begin.

“Mr. and Mrs. Argent?” The deputy asked as Scott sidled up beside her to take her hand. She lay her head on his shoulder, grateful for the support.

“What?” Her mother snapped impatiently. The last few months had worn the two down, they looked older and brittle. Breakable. The isolation was getting to them. Anytime Allison felt sorry about that thought, she would only have to picture the burned out husk of the Hale house and the feeling went away.

“You are both under arrest for accessory to murder after the fact, accessory to Arson after the fact, conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to commit arson, and endangerment of a minor. We will have to ask you to come with us.”

They both began to struggle slightly but it was only her father that that seemed to be looking for her. Her mother just looked furious. “My daughter?” Her father asked.

Jordan Parrish smirked, “Your daughter will be well taken care of.” Then he gestured over at her. Both her parents looked and saw, maybe for the first time that their daughter wasn’t suffering here any longer. They saw her family materialize around and she leaned on her werewolf boyfriend. They saw her smile at their arrest.

Chris Argent shook his head in denial but Victoria roared in anger. “You stupid little girl, what did you do?” She screamed and would have lunged without the officers holding her. “She’s a liar, whatever she told you was a lie.”

Deputy Parrish shook his head, “I doubt it. Oh, you should know that Kate and Gerard Argent were found about fifteen minutes ago. They committed suicide by cop. Your assets have been frozen, as have the assets of the so called Hunters council. All of which have been arrested on multiple murder counts. You are going away for a long time.” With that the officers, and more than a few volunteers, dragged the duo away.

The rest of the town went about their business, gossiping a usual. Happier than ever.


End file.
